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| News: Happy PlayStation Day! Some facts and figures Created: 07-05-2008 11:44 Edited: 16-05-2008 08:44 |
Happy PlayStation Day! Some Facts and FiguresSony hosted a special 'PlayStation Day' in London yesterday (6th May 2008) in order to inform European journalists on all things PlayStation related. This included recaps on what has happened, facts and figures and some insights into new things coming soon (like Resistance 2 - ooh yeah baby, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror's Edge and Killzone 2). Here is a cut down list of some interesting things mentioned during the event...
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| View: Pain and the new Playstation Store Created: 16-04-2008 08:25 Edited: 21-04-2008 05:51 |
Pain and the New Playstation StoreThe new firmware update 2.30 released yesterday (15th April 2008) not only brought us DTS-HD audio for Blu-Ray movies, but also a new Playstation Store. I have wanted to buy the game "PAIN" for a while now but thought I would hang on until the new PS Store was launched in order to try out the ordering process.The new store is no longer a Web site but an application. There are some benefits of this, such as faster and smoother navigation. It still has to load the thumbnail images and info via the network so there are slight pauses but you don't have to wait if you don't want to. You can still navigate around without waiting for the pictures to load. That's great. The only down side is that when you click on something you don't get a normal 'loading' type animation in the corner. Instead, whatever you clicked on pulses. Once you realise this it makes sense. Ordering "PAIN" from the store was incredibly easy, which was a very pleasant surprise. I hadn't given PSN my credit card details before so I had no credit in my 'wallet' (which is like a PSN bank you transfer money to in order to make purchases). It simply asked for my card details and informed me it needed to move £5 into my wallet before the purchase could continue. The game itself is only £4.99 but the minimum amount you can transfer to your wallet is £5, so I opted to purchase a couple of extra characters for "PAIN" too at 69p each so I didn't have to leave money in my account. Everything went through like a dream and the game and items started downloading just like anything else. I can't fault it. The game "PAIN" from Idol Minds is brilliant fun. I won't go into too much detail because there are lots of reviews online about it, but suffice it to say the idea is to catapult your character into objects, vehicles and explosive crates to create as much pain and damage as possible. I know some other people have complained that there is only one level (the city) but there are several game modes to choose from and lots to unlock by reaching targets. These might be score targets or having to performing certain actions a number of times. Its been called a mini-game but I think 'casual' game is more accurate as the unlockables give it quite a bit of longevity. Its one of those games which is a simple concept, and great for having a quick play but before you know it you have been playing for 3 hours desperately trying to get that gold medal in a certain event. There are already about 6 downloadable characters to add for a very small fee and it looks like there is an area to expand the locations too - which I can't wait for.     There is a bit of adult humour in the game (with modes such as 'Spank the Monkey' and bonuses for crippling your character in various embarrassing ways) but the violence is less graphic than a classic Loony Tunes cartoon - but its just as funny. For this reason I let my daughter have a go and she loves it. She has no problems controlling it and was in stitches when her favourite character 'Cookie' was flung face first into an oncoming train with the usual cartoon sound effects. If you sometimes like to pick up a game and play it for half an hour like I do (i.e. a casual gamer) without watching hours of pre-story or desperately trying to reach a save point, then I am sure you will love it. Highly recommended for under a fiver! |
| News: No Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix demo for PS3 Created: 17-03-2008 12:47 Edited: 18-03-2008 07:11 |
No Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Demo for PS3You may already be annoyed at Capcom for their recent decisions regarding the PS3, making users install 5GB of data before playing their games (even if it means speeding up loading times). The games have been worth it (so far) but now they have announced there will be a demo of SSFIITHDR for the 360 and not the PS3! (Could they have made the name any longer?!)The reason Capcom have given is due to the project being over budget and creating the PS3 beta would require three versions - one for the US, one for Europe and one for Asia/Japan. Actually, its not all bad news. The 360 users will only get the download if they purchase a 'Live' arcade game, 'Commando 3' for 800 points (£7?) - so its not exactly a free test. Plus all the feedback data will be used to improve the PS3 version too. So essentially, the 360 owners are being used as guinea pigs - and they have to pay for the privilege! Okay then ;-) There have already been reported problems with the 360 version of the game due to the download size limit on 360 Arcade games - where it had already been bumped from 50MB to 150MB due to restriction complaints from developers in Jan 2007. Capcom have said this still isn't enough for all of the 1080p quality graphics and difficult or impossible to include all the original and remixed game music. MS have apparently panicked at the thought of losing out and are now allowing larger downloads on a case by case basis. I believe PSN has at least a 5GB download limit for its games :-D  Look familiar?... I might have to break out my old SNES now to practice ;-) Personally, I think I might have to wait until Street Fighter IV comes out. Here are some screenshots for comparison...  |
| News: Wipeout HD gliding into homes this year Created: 25-02-2008 11:32 Edited: 27-02-2008 09:16 |
Wipeout HD Gliding into Homes This YearI have just watched the trailer and seen some screenshots of WipeoutHD for the PS3 coming this year. It looks amazing and runs 60fps at 1080p! Superb stuff, and ever better - its available exclusively by download from the PlayStation Store so should be much cheaper than normal retail prices.  Here are some of the details so far:
  To download the trailer and for more information, go to: http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=49947 |
| News: A million PS3 consoles sold in the UK Created: 15-02-2008 09:01 Edited: 15-02-2008 09:33 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Million PS3 Consoles Sold in the UKSony have just announced that they sold 1 million Playstation 3 consoles in the UK in just 47 weeks since its release. This even beats the PS2 which sold 1 million units in 50 weeks and is still the biggest selling console of all time. It also beats the Xbox360 which took 60 weeks to reach a million. The Nintendo Wii managed to reach a million in just 38 weeks, but then its not really targeted at hardcore gamers. Sony also said that it took only 9 and a half weeks for the Playstation3 to reach 1 million units throughout Europe.ChartTrack have some interesting statistics about UK console and game sales and show that the PS3 and 360 were neck and neck over the Christmas 2007 period but the Playstion 3 has since overtook the 360 in sales. Based on current figures it is predicted that the PS3 userbase will overtake the 360 this year in Europe. Just out of interest, I decided to look at how much computers of old are worth in todays money when you take into consideration inflation. The argument that the PS3 is still too expensive is still doing the rounds on forums and blogs, but if you compare the price with previous computers you might be pleasantly surprised. I chose some computers at random as its a bit tricky to find UK launch prices for many of them. Here are my findings (in UK prices with inflation):
Kind of interesting I thought. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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